Olympic Suite, tobogganing
Rosa Serra1993
The Olympic Museum
Lausanne, Switzerland
Rosa Serra's works express the aesthetic emotion of the sporting movement. The artist wants to depict movement and action, and when a sportsman is in action and movement, we recognise him by his personal style and fighting spirit more than by his face or the characteristics of his legs. Indeed, most of the athletes depicted have no facial features and some of them show no differentiation of legs.
It was not easy to represent the luge artistically but Rosa Serra solved the problem by simplifying the shape. Cast in glossy bronze, with accessories coloured bright gold – mask and runners – this medium-format piece give an impression of force that is both reassuring and natural to the athlete.
- Title: Olympic Suite, tobogganing
- Creator Lifespan: 19 September 1944
- Creator Nationality: Spanish
- Creator Gender: Female
- Creator Birth Place: Vic, Spain
- Date Created: 1993
- Location Created: Spain
- Sculptor: Rosa Serra
- Physical Dimensions: w620 x h360 x d210 cm (Complete)
- Description: The sculpture is modelled in clay from Olot and cast in glossy bronze, with accessories coloured bright gold.
- Collection information: In 1984, David Moner, the President of the Catalan Swimming Federation, met Rosa Serra to ask her to produce a collection of sculptures on Olympic sports. The artist started work. As soon as he heard about this initiative, Juan Antonio Samaranch, the then-President of the International Olympic Committee and a great art lover, showed his support. Once the 22 sculptures had been created, David Moner donated them to the International Olympic Committee. In the following years, Juan Antonio Samaranch asked the artist to continue the series with the other sports on the Olympic programme. In 1994, the collection of 38 sculptures was completed.
- Artistic school or movement: Rosa Serra began her artistic studies in 1970 at painter Lluis Carbonell’s academy. In 1972, she entered the Olot Art School and learned to work in clay at the studio of the famous Olot sculptor, Lluis Curos. From that time onwards, mud and clay opened up a new horizon for her and sculpture became her major artistic activity. From the outset, Rosa Serra has had a special liking for sporting themes. The sculpture of Rosa Serra, which was influenced by Rodin, Manolo Hugué and especially Henry Moore, centres on the human figure, which she represents in a very simplified - and sometimes deformed - fashion, in an abstract expressionist style. She has taken part in various biennales, exhibiting works in relation with sport: in 1976, she won a first prize for her sculpture “Wrestling” at the “Art-Sport 76” Biennial in Bilbao.
- Type: Sculpture
- Rights: International Olympic Committee, 2003, ©IOC/N.Rupp
- Medium: Glossy, gold-coloured bronze sculpture
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